Neon buys Sam Altman movie after Amazon exits project
Neon moved to buy a nearly finished $40 million Sam Altman film after Amazon MGM Studios walked away. The exit came after Amazon’s new OpenAI tie-up.
Neon was closing in on a deal for Artificial, a nearly finished, roughly $40 million film about OpenAI chief Sam Altman and the five-day stretch in November 2023 when he was fired by the company and then rehired. Luca Guadagnino directed the movie from a screenplay by Simon Rich, with Andrew Garfield playing Altman and Monica Barbaro, Yura Borisov and Ike Barinholtz cast as Mira Murati, Ilya Sutskever and Elon Musk.
Amazon MGM Studios had been involved with the project but stepped away after positive test screenings, telling the filmmakers it believed the film would "be better served if it were released by a different studio." The studio also said it had "utmost respect and admiration" for Guadagnino and was working with the filmmakers to find a new home. The move came after speculation in Hollywood over whether a company deepening its OpenAI ties would want to distribute a film that depicts Altman and Musk in unflattering terms.
That scrutiny sharpened because Amazon and OpenAI announced a multi-year strategic partnership on Feb. 27, 2026. Under the deal, Amazon said it would invest $50 billion in OpenAI, starting with an initial $15 billion and then another $35 billion if conditions were met. The agreement also made AWS the exclusive third-party cloud distribution provider for OpenAI Frontier and expanded the companies’ work together on custom AI models and infrastructure.
Netflix, A24 and Focus Features had passed after screenings, and Mubi was also in the mix as the search for a buyer narrowed. The film had been eyeing a launch at SXSW in Austin, Texas, with Venice also mentioned as a possible destination.
The cast also includes Cooper Hoffman, Jason Schwartzman, Cooper Koch, Billie Lourd, Zosia Mamet, Angus Imrie, Chris O’Dowd and Mark Rylance. Neon’s pickup gives Artificial a new route after a distribution fight that has drawn attention well beyond the film business, because it sits at the intersection of a movie about one of OpenAI’s most volatile chapters and a studio now tied more closely than ever to the company behind it.
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